Admission to the Ph.D. program normally occurs after a student has completed an M.S. degree program. In rare cases, a student may be admitted to the Ph.D. program without having completed an M.S. degree. Such admission normally will be granted only if the applicant has clearly demonstrated exceptional performance in an undergraduate program and in any graduate work completed. Students who are admitted to the Ph.D. degree program and who do not complete an M.S. degree in chemical or petroleum engineering are required to take the M.S. degree core courses (15 credit hours) over and above the course work herein specified for the Ph.D. degree.
The performance of all persons admitted to the program shall be evaluated by the Graduate Standards Committee at the end of the student's first semester in the program. The measures of performance used in the evaluation are the student graduate grade-point average and performance in any assigned research or teaching assistance duties. At that time, the Committee shall make a recommendation about the student's status to the department faculty. Once the student has been designated as a Ph.D. aspirant, an advisory committee monitors his or her progress.
A three-member advisory committee is formed for each student once the student has been designated a Ph.D. aspirant. The student research director will normally serve as the committee chair. The committee works with the aspirant to develop an appropriate overall plan of study and monitors the student's progress for the rest of the Ph.D. program.
A formal plan of study must be drawn up, approved by the Advisory Committee, and submitted to the Associate Dean of Engineering for Graduate Study. The Ph.D. degree normally requires 15 credit hours of course work beyond that required for an M.S. degree, and 30-34 credit hours of research work. Students are required to complete a Foreign Language or Other Research Skills (FLORS) requirement based on their area of research specialization. Work done to fulfill this requirement should involve study in an area that is complementary to the selected research area and should enhance the student's ability to carry out the research. The FLORS requirement may be satisfied by completing course work within the plan of study and/or demonstrating proficiency in the specialization area. The Ph.D. advisory committee will specifically designate those components of the plan of study that fulfill the FLORS requirement.
The aspirant may undertake the comprehensive examination after completion of a majority of the course work for the Ph.D. and all of the Department, School, and Graduate School requirements prerequisite to this examination, including the FLORS requirement. The examination consists of two parts: a written proposal for research and an oral examination that is based on, but not limited to, the research proposal. For the research proposal, the student will be assigned a topic of current interest to the chemical and/or petroleum engineering profession. The oral examination will be based on the research proposal, but may also cover areas peripheral to the proposal. Upon receipt of a grade of "honors" or "satisfactory" on the comprehensive examination, the aspirant is admitted to candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
The doctoral dissertation, based on independent research conducted by the candidate, constitutes the final phase of the doctoral work and must be completed within the time constraints prescribed by the Graduate School. Upon acceptance of the dissertation by the advisory committee, the candidate defends the dissertation in a final oral examination.
Typical completion time is four and one-half years beyond the B.S. degree.
The master's programs in chemical and petroleum engineering are designed for students with baccalaureate degrees in chemical or petroleum engineering. Students with degrees in some other branch of engineering, or in mathematics, chemistry, physics, or other sciences may also be admitted and are encouraged to consider the programs.
Those students will usually be required to take some undergraduate course work to provide the necessary background for graduate courses in the programs. For an M.S. in chemical engineering, the undergraduate prerequisite courses are: momentum transfer (C&PE 511), chemical engineering thermodynamics (C&PE 512), heat transfer (C&PE 521), mass transfer (C&PE 523), and kinetics and reactor design (C&PE 524).
For an M.S. in petroleum engineering, the undergraduate prerequisite courses are: C&PE 511, C&PE 521, reservoir engineering II (C&PE 527), and waterflooding (C&PE 618). Depending on a student's academic background and proposed plan of study, additional undergraduate prerequisite courses may be required. Up to three credit hours of the undergraduate prerequisite courses (numbered 500 or above) may be counted as elected hours in the M.S. degree program.
For petroleum engineering, if a student has not completed an advanced level, reservoir-related course in geology as an undergraduate, then such a course must be taken as one of the electives (Geol 535, petroleum and subsurface geology, is recommended).
Each student, with the help of graduate advisor and the student research director, shall, before the end of the first semester of M.S. study, submit a plan of study to the Associate Dean of Engineering for Graduate Study.
For the M.S. degree with thesis option, a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate course work and research is required. This includes six credit hours of research work. The student, upon completion of the thesis, takes a final oral examination that may cover both course work and the thesis topic.
For the non-thesis option M.S. in chemical engineering, a minimum of 33 credit hours of course work is required. This includes a written report of three-hour special project.
The following awards are given to Graduate Students in recognition of their achievements. Awards are presented during the Spring Awards Banquet.
